MEL COLEMAN

Looking Isn't Seeing' navigates between perception and comprehension using collage, paint and photography. Each artwork layers fragments of imagery, texture, and symbolism, prompting viewers to contemplate the essence of sight and embrace perception's transformative potential.

Connections is a body of work created with chance and deliberate encounters. Relying heavily on images of people, forms intersect creating new narratives of identity, intimacy, relationships and gender.

"Connections" can have various meanings depending on the context. In a general sense, it refers to the links or relationships between different elements or individuals. In art, it might signify the relationships between various elements within a composition, creating a harmonious whole. In a broader context, "connections" can relate to interpersonal relationships, networking, or the associations formed between ideas, concepts, or events. The term embodies the idea of linking or joining disparate elements in a way that fosters understanding, coherence, or collaboration.

The deliberate connections forged within Coleman's work reflect a deep engagement with these themes, inviting viewers to contemplate the fluidity and complexity of gendered identities.

Through the lens of collage, Coleman navigates the ever-evolving landscape of gender and the body, challenging conventional notions and inviting viewers to engage in a process of reflection and dialogue.

These collages are made, photographed and disassembled further referencing the often fleeting nature of relationships and identity.

This work explores gender identity using vintage magazines to create playful yet poignant dialogue around societal expectations in the past and presently. 

The process of making this work involved sourcing the vintage magazines, scanning the images to preserve the originals, before cutting and collaging them.  The finished collages were then scanned  and digitally split into four colour channels -CMYK- cyan, magenta, yellow and black — to create detailed, photorealistic images. The 4 colour channels were then printed on films and exposed to four photosensitive silk screens before being manually printed.

DREAM INSTALLATION

This was a site specific installation made for Sleep Envie. A selection of artists were each given a different mattress to develop into an installation for the company launch event.

For this project I was inspired by dreaming. The boundless and yet often repetitive nature of them. The calm and yet frantic energy. The lifting and the dropping in.

The installation included a mattress that has been covered in layers of acrylic paint with abstract and expressive brushwork..

Textiles sourced from numerous locations are draped over the mattress as well as hung in a floating canopy above. Paper cut outs and paint colour samples are woven in and suspended around with fishing line.

Helium balloons float and lift the fabric whimsically while the mattress is supported from the rafters with rope.

This work was completed during a residency at Spark Box Studios in PEC, Ontario 2014

Collages were made with images sourced from vintage, “Women’s Magazine,” before being fully expressed through oil paint.

This project explores gender stereotypes, identity, domesticity and societies preconceived notions of being a woman.

This collage series reflects on women in art and how their prominence is under appreciated. Women were typically encouraged to paint as a hobby and were frequently confined to their domestic dwellings. This often resulted in studies of interiors, still lives and commonly flowers. Flowers have come to have mixed symbolism in painting because while a plant typically would symbolize life, flowers that are cut will inevitably die. This series represents these woman as their kept flowers, full of life yet resigned to death.

Coleman's artistic exploration in "A PICTURE OF A NAKED WOMAN" is rooted in the pervasive consumerist culture critiqued by Mark Twain in "A Tramp Abroad," which often leads to the objectification and disposability of materials and individuals. By addressing the ongoing consumerist demands, particularly the portrayal of women as commodities in public media, Coleman employs elements of Pop Art to underscore the allure and destructiveness of consumerism.

Drawing inspiration from diverse cultural sources such as Titian’s Venus d’Urbino, vintage Playboy magazine centerfolds and contemporary advertisements found in NOW Magazine, Coleman's work interrogates societal norms surrounding sex, objectification, and the evolving portrayal of sexuality in media.

Twain's commentary on "Venus d'Urbino" aimed at his 19th century audience, after viewing it in The Tribune, Uffizi, highlights the contextual significance of art, noting the transformation of a depiction of nudity into a revered masterpiece within the confines of a public gallery. This distinction emphasizes the shifting perceptions of sexuality between public and private spheres.

“Titian’s Venus d’Urbino, came into being in the 1530s, when Guidobaldo della Rovere, heir to the Duchy of Urbino, borrowed money from his mother to commission the painting from Titian. When the painting arrived, Guidobaldo entered it into his catalogue of possessions as exactly what it was, not the Venus of d’Urbino, but as a “picture of a naked woman.” Which is where the exhibition title comes from. Guidobaldo installed it in his bedroom chamber.

Inspired by Twain's observations, vintage Playboy magazines, and contemporary media, Coleman's work navigates the complexities of consumerist culture and its impact on the portrayal of sexuality and identity in modern society.

This body of work was developed over the course of three years for three site specific exhibitions. These works were inspired by the Kawarthas

CONDOSCAPES - collage and assemblage works on found and discarded materials such as blue prints, canvas, doors, magazines and photo litho plates.

These works comment on the exponential growth of condominiums in the GTA.

Coleman’s previous studio located at Sawtooth Studios at 444 Dufferin St, Toronto was torn down and replaced with The Brixton, a condo. This displaced over 100 artists and artisans, some of which had been working in the space for over 30 years.

Blueprints of the actual building were found by Coleman in a neighbouring recycling bin which inspired many of the works in the series.

Before its demolition, architects hosted the tenants for a presentation of the new design with the promise of their needs being included. The offer was smaller and less functional studios and increased rent. The condo was to be marketed as a cultural living space, a neighbourhood filled with artists and creativity, when in fact, they would displace it. No artists or artisans remain today. The main level is commercial retail and office spaces.

The title CONDOSCAPES speaks to the constantly changing cityscape in Toronto, with the question of whether “Manhattanization” is a sustainable investment? Toronto was the fastest growing city in North America when this project was completed, with 72% of the growth focusing on condominiums, with 50% of them as one bedroom units.

This project asks the question, is Toronto making history or is it demolishing it to make room for yet another shoebox condo?

This exhibition took place at The Brockton Collective located at 444 Dufferin St before the building was demolished.

Source:

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/8f4f-City-Planning-Condominiums-Two-Decades-of-New-Housing.pdf

This body of work, with its vibrant colours and pop aesthetic, symbolically masks the exploitative nature of condominium developments in the city, critiquing their marketing strategies that often capitalize on artistic identity while simultaneously displacing the very art communities they claim to support.

The series incorporates recycled silkscreen ink on canvas and panel, combined with found magazine clippings.

This series of mono prints was created at Spark Box Studio Residency in Picton, ON.
This body of work explores our relationship to nostalgia in the home. Ideas of isolation and memory call into question whether reality is a singular notion or a shared ideology. How we remember the past compared to those present, the feeling of distance not exclusively through time but also through remembered experience.

The painting series Domestic Portraits was being developed during the same period of time with similar investigations into the home.

"This collection features oil paintings and silk screens, utilizing six muses spanning various historical decades. It reflects on womanhood, gender roles, societal expectations, and exploitations, exploring themes of duality and identity crisis. Additionally, it critically examines the portrayal of women in the media

12” x 12” Intaglio prints on somerset paper

drawings of hard ground and soft ground, acid resistant coatings that are used in etchings.

An investigation into the mediums themselves. The subtleties that go unnoticed.